Make Google chrome with specific user profile as default browser

Question

Is it possible to set Google chrome with a custom user profile as the default browser?

When I set google chrome as the default browser, it picks the "default" user profile as against the custom one I have setup. I tried setting google chrome as default browser after opening it from that particular user profile, but it doesn't seem to have an effect.

I googled around but could only find another poor soul like myself who asked a similar question here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=69f0a6e776ceab1c&hl=en

There weren't any responses to that question.

Cheers.

Answer 1

I did a search and replace of all the occurrences of chrome.exe in my registry with the specific command link. So,

"C:\Users\PROFILE-NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -- "%1"  

was replaced with

"C:\Users\PROFILE-NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"  --user-data-dir="C:\Chrome Profile \location" --omnibox-popup-count=10 -- "%1"

everywhere and so far haven't run into any troubles. But there should definitely be a more easier/elegant way of doing this.

Answer 2

There's an explanation of how to use multiple Chrome profiles here.

The gist of it is to look inside

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome

(Windows XP)
or

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

(Vista, Win7)

and copy the "User Data\Default" folder to "User Data\your_profile".

Then run chrome with some command-line options:

chrome.exe --user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_profile" -first-run

and thereafter, you can run Chrome with that profile by using:

chrome.exe --user-data-dir="..\User Data\Your_Name"

And you can add that --user-data-dir option to a shortcut.

Now how you would use that setup for the default browser, I don't know. Might involve some tinkering in the Registry, around HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell

Answer 3

Add a string value called UserDataDir under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome

with the value of the user-data-dir that you'd like to use.

This works in Chrome version 21. I'm not sure which version it was first implemented in, though.

This way you don't have to use any command line arguments to chrome.exe and so you don't need to change the shell handlers for the various file types that chrome opens

Answer 4

This question is basically the same, and the answers indicate that unfortunately, there is no practical solution yet.

Answer 5

I have a solution for MacOSX. I have used an Automator to create Folder Action on ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome. When the Chrome application quits, it creates some unimportant shutdown file in this directory. This triggers a folder action. If the last profile used was not the Default it runs this script, to modify saved profile:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome
if ! grep '"last_used": "Default"' Local\ State >/dev/null; then
    sed -e 's/"last_used":.*/"last_used": "Default",/' \
        -e 's/"last_active_profiles":.*/"last_active_profiles": [ "Default" ],/' \
        -i .bak Local\ State
    say "Chrome Default Profile Set"
fi

Next time you start Chrome (anyhow), it will start with the Default profile.

Answer 6

No way to do it. Chrome always opens any external link from the active user or the last user you have switched to.